The most sensational events in the Five Elements Hall had been happening one after another recently, and it seemed all of them were related to a new disciple.
Now that he had returned with the head of a sage, another matter was about to commence.
He had declared that he would begin accepting challenges from the disciples of the Water Hall.
Those with sharp minds immediately understood.
The reason the new disciple hadn't accepted before wasn't because he was afraid, but because he lacked the功勋点 (gōngxūn diǎn - merit points) to do so.
Now that he had completed his mission and earned five hundred merit points, he could naturally accept the challenges.
The people at the mission hall had dispersed, and no one went to the fighting arena.
This was because Wan Lei had stated that it was late in the day, he had just returned from a mission and needed to rest, and moreover, the merit points had not yet been credited. He would head to the fighting arena to battle first thing tomorrow morning.
After bidding farewell to Xiao Jin, Wan Lei returned to his cave, sat on the meditation cushion, and began to cultivate.
He was cultivating a new divine ability taught to him by the Great Sage Equalling Heaven – Wuji.
The first stage of the new divine ability was called Qian Mian, which allowed for myriad transformations. Once mastered, it could form a field around the user, altering the appearance of everyone within the field.
According to the Great Sage, this divine ability required a certain cultivation realm to use. To unleash the third stage, Wuji, and transform into the Heavenly Dao, one would need at least the Golden Immortal realm cultivation.
However, if he didn't transform into the Heavenly Dao but merely influenced a large area, it should be fine.
Regardless, his current tasks were to accept challenges from his enemies to accumulate merit points, and to cultivate this divine ability in preparation for breaking someone out of prison.
He had already planned that once he could escape the Five Elements Hall with Xiao Yu, he would directly teleport to the East Sea to seek the Great Sage's protection.
Don't forget he had another skill: formations. He could directly teleport to places he had been, as long as they weren't too far.
Although the distance was from the absolute center of the Immortal Realm continent to the easternmost edge, as long as he didn't leave the Immortal Realm continent for the starry sky, he could do it.
Cough, cough, his thoughts had strayed. He continued cultivating Qian Mian…
While cultivating, Wan Lei couldn't help but feel nostalgic for the time he spent learning divine abilities in the Thunder Wind Realm.
The divine abilities back then were either attached to his Thunder God authority, such as Thunder Escape and Thunder Defense, or they were directly instilled into his mind by sages in secret realms, ready to be used without needing to cultivate or comprehend them.
This divine ability given by the Great Sage actually required cultivation to use; it was truly not considerate.
Alas, speaking of which, why didn't the sages, after imparting their divine abilities and Dao methods to him, also speak out to help Xiao Yu clear her name? After teaching him, they just left, with no follow-up customer service.
Bah, scumbags, they disappear after they've had their way…
Cough, cough, he'd strayed again. Back to cultivating Qian Mian.
Throughout the night, with Wan Lei's thoughts constantly wandering and his mind drifting, he finally managed to cultivate and learn the first stage.
Once learned, this divine ability was also simple to use. Improved by the Great Sage, the Seventy-Two Transformations had become the Seven Ultimate Transformations.
Furthermore, any of the seven energy attributes could be used for transformation. Theoretically, if his internal cultivation was depleted and he had no energy, the transformation could not be maintained.
This meant he had to be careful not to exhaust his cultivation during a battle after transforming.
However, Wan Lei possessed the chaotic energy of the Creation God Disk and the Universe Seed within him, which could continuously provide him with energy.
How much combat intensity could exhaust the energy of an entire universe?
In the early hours of the morning, Wan Lei's cave was empty. Instead, a seemingly ordinary stone appeared on the meditation cushion.
Suddenly, the stone transformed into a monkey, then into a beautiful woman, and then into a spirit stone…
Wan Lei finally grew into everyone's beloved appearance…
Finally, Wan Lei transformed into Fang Xiao Yu's appearance and amusingly looked in the mirror.
After returning to his own appearance, Wan Lei summarized that the best aspect of this transformation divine ability wasn't how closely the transformed target resembled the original, but how well it blended with the environment, which was the best camouflage.
For example, in a forest, you could become a leaf; in a desert, a grain of sand; in the sea, a drop of water.
With such camouflage, who could see through it?
Of course, the best camouflage was to become air, which could blend with almost any environment. You could drift past an enemy's face, and they wouldn't even notice; you could go anywhere in the world.
However, Wan Lei had tried many times without success and had given up.
The first stage of the Seventy-Two Transformations, Qian Mian, could only allow him to transform into tangible things, objects or people that could be seen and touched. He couldn't transform into spiritual energy or energy.
Because the first stage could only change appearance, aura, and pressure, but not life structure, no matter how he transformed, he needed to use his external appearance to conceal his fleshy core, thus he couldn't become transparent.
If he forcefully transformed into air, others would be able to see his internal organs.
This was only possible if he cultivated to the third stage, Wuji, or became an Immortal Venerable, a supreme will, a primordial energy body.
As the first ray of light appeared in the eastern sky, Wan Lei walked out of his cave, and coincidentally, he shouted on the internal forum, "Wan Lei is going out, heading towards the fighting arena."
In reality, it was entirely unnecessary because many eyes were already monitoring him outside his cave dwelling.
As Wan Lei moved, the Five Elements Hall also gradually became lively in the early morning, with many people flying towards the fighting arena, including quite a few disciples from the Water Hall.
The fighting arenas were built on rolling mountain ranges. Because the Five Elements Hall encouraged other disciples to watch duels and learn combat experience from them, each fighting arena had many tiered steps around the perimeter where people could sit and watch.
Some dedicated combat enthusiasts, known as battle maniacs, lived near the fighting arenas. They usually watched others fight, and if they encountered a good opponent, they would issue a challenge themselves and battle their enemies.
At any time, the fighting arenas were never short of spectators for combat.
Today, Fighting Arena Number Eight was exceptionally lively.
Many disciples of the Five Elements Hall packed the arena so full that some who arrived late, unable to find a seat, could only watch by flying in the air.
They had all come today to witness how the legendary Origin-tier talented individual, the record-breaker of the assessment, the survivor of the Purgatory-tier mission, and the one who specifically bullied sages, would fight.
With so many accolades gathered in one person, it was enough to drive everyone into a frenzy.
Wan Lei was a stranger to the Five Elements Hall, as he had only been there for a little over a month. However, in just this past month, he had set so many records that no one dared to imagine. This made people extremely interested in this young man with a mysterious background.
All eyes were cast upon the solitary figure standing in the center of the fighting arena, with his ponytail fluttering in the morning sunlight.